Question

Please Give a report about the new innovation of hydrogels towards cartilage repair.

Answer 1

Innovation of Hydrogels in Cartilage Repair :

Cartilage is a type of dense, non vascular connective tissue , usually found at the end of joints, the rib cage, in the throat, the nose , the ear and between the Intervertebral disks. It forms the avascular lining between joints. Due to its lack blood supply the capacity of intrinsic repair of Cartilage is very less. Adequate restore of damaged cartilage is still difficult even with the use of microfracture and arthroplasty.

Cartilage tissue Engineering developed an innovative strategy for Cartilage Repair , which is called, Hydrogel design for Cartilage Repair. Cartlage tissue Engineering is working to integrate biological principles and engineering techniques with the purpose of Cartilage Repair or growth of new cartilage to replace the damaged one.

Hydrogel is a collloid gel in which water is the continous phase, and they have number of medical and industrial applications. Hydrogels have the ability to entrap cells within the materials and a wide variety of other properties, so it is using as scaffold for repairing the damaged cartilages.  Many studies are happened in the past years to improve the utility of Hydrogels in Cartilage Repair. Many new approaches  have arised for Cartilage Repair, by the use of Hydrogels. It's fabrication, highly swollen and porous at molecular level, can  be cell amenable , that can increase the encapsulation of Chondrocytes, stem cells also it allows the diffusion of solutes and nutrients.

The mainly used Hydrogel structures are IPNs( Interpenetrating networks), semi IPNs ( semi Interpenetrating networks), and Double networks. All of them had a considerable effect in the repair of damaged cartilage. Innovative approach of Hydrogel use in Cartilage tissue Engineering is a promising strategy for repair of damaged cartilage.